6.4.09

Thee Milkshakes, The Stingrays, The Cannibals- These Cats Ain’t Nothing But Trash (1983)

Take four guys (or girls, or any combination...), basic equipment, guitar, bass and a rudimentary drumkit. Songs based on a I IV V progression and the blues pentatonic scale. What do you call it? Here it’s called Trash, but it formed the basis of punk rock and all honest rock n roll music. After punk legions of d.i.y bands sprung up who followed this template for reasons of both ideology and necessity.
This 1983 compilation brings together The Stingrays (Crouch End), The Cannibals (London) and The(e) Milkshakes (Chatham).
Thee Milkshakes were one of the numerous bands developed by Billy Childish, in my book a candidate for the title The Greatest Living Englishman, and the only person that I have seen give a satisfactory answer to the question ‘what is art?’ If you think that you might have just one creative cell in your body but feel inhibited about actually doing anything about it, take Billy Childish as your model and just go out and do it.